Why I started using SharePoint

Every story has a beginning; let me start by saying I am in no way a Microsoft SharePoint "expert". I do not work for Microsoft and I am not being compensated by any organization for this blog. I am however, passionate about making data work for you instead of you working for your data. I have also worked with SharePoint for ten years now and find it is a fantastic tool for leveraging data organization.

I, like many others out there, happened upon SharePoint quite by accident. I was a project manager you see, organizing time lines and tasks, managing risks and issues. I happened to be in the midst of a large scale project when one of my system admins asked if I would help evaluate a new product from Microsoft. It was late 2001 and I was eager to find ways to make my hectic job less stressful and more efficient. I fell in love with SharePoint right from the beginning. Imagine a website that I didn't need to have a developer write or maintain for me. I could post documents, make announcements, and even keep my list of issues posted. I immediately saw the big picture possibilities.

As my project progressed I started to incorporate my SharePoint site into my project. I started telling people, "Let me send you a link to my SharePoint site, I have all the documents posted there". Slowly, people started asking me how to make their own SharePoint site. One of the advantages of being an early adopter is you also get to be an early educator. Me and a few other early adopters of SharePoint, in my company, got together and started hosting brown bag sessions for our fellow co-workers. Talking about what we learned in this situation or how to do this or that. As time went by SharePoint shifted from being this cool little app someone told me about to a grass-roots movement in my company. Everyone wanted to use SharePoint; it was the new shiny toy in the room. I felt like I knew my friend SharePoint really well but I wanted to know more, do more. I developed the belief that if I could imagine it, SharePoint could do it. It was this belief that, in my opinion, changed me from a "user" of SharePoint to a solutions designer.

I started using SharePoint, just to give me a better way to organize, but I now look at SharePoint as a tool to help information I need work for me, rather than me working for information I need. I hope that I can spread that message to others and have them see the possibilities in using the platform we call SharePoint.